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Also available from Spectrum Concerts Berlin: AMERICAN CLASSICS ROBERT HELPS in Berlin Chamber Music with Piano

Spectrum Concerts Berlin ATOS Trio Robert Helps, Piano

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CD 1 55:36 CD 2 62:13 Also available from Spectrum Concerts Berlin: 1 Postlude for Horn, Violin Trio I for Violin, Cello and Piano (1957) 14:36 and Piano (1964) 8:43 1 I. Mesto 5:37 2 II. Molto marcato 4:18 2 Fantasy for Violin and Piano (1963) 6:57 3 III. Maestoso 4:41 Quartet for Piano, Violin, Trio II for Violin, Cello and Piano (2000) 12:23 Viola and Cello (1997) 17:52 4 I. Duets: Allegro 3:06 5 3 I. Prelude 5:32 II. Horizons: Austere, but intense 6:47 6 4 II. Intermezzo (Flowing – Expressive – Sempre legato) 2:22 III. Toccata frustrata 2:30 5 III. Scherzo 3:19 7 Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47): Six Lieder, Op. 71 6 IV. Postlude 4:38 No. 4: Schilflied (1842-47, arr. Helps 1988) 3:53 7 V. Coda – The Players Gossip (Allegro giocoso) 2:01 8 John Ireland (1879-1962): Love is a Sickness Full of Woes (1921, arr. Helps 1995) 2:59 8 Duo for Cello and Piano (1977) 8:10 9 Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): Quintet for Violin, Cello, Flute, Intermezzo in A flat major (1943) 4:18 Clarinet and Piano (1997) 13:54 Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938): 9 I. Moving 5:54 Studies on Chopin’s Études (1894-1914) 0 II. Relentlessly (without inflection) 2:24 0 Study No. 45 in E major, 1st version after ! III. Dolce e legato 5:37 Nouvelle étude No. 2 in A flat major (1906) 5:52 ! Study No. 12 in G flat major, 1st version after 8.559282 8.559324 Étude Op. 10, No. 5 (1909) 3:06 @ Helps: Shall We Dance (1994) 11:20 # Ireland: From the Darkened Valley (1919) 3:46

Recorded at Siemens Villa, Berlin, Germany*, from 21st to 23rd June, 2010 (CD 1), and on 24th June, 2010 (CD 2 1-6), and live in the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie, Berlin, on 5th November, 1997 (CD 2 7-0), and on 6th November, 2000 (CD 2 !-#) *Producer: Christoph Franke • *Engineer: Boris Manych • *Technician: Sarah Hoelscher Generous support for this project was extended by the following: Abby Whiteside Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., Nina von Maltzahn, Deutschlandradio, Edward T. Cone Foundation, Friends of Spectrum Concerts Berlin e.v., Spectrum Concerts Berlin-USA, Inc., Susquehanna University, University of the Arts Berlin Publishers: American Composers Edition (CD 1 1-2; CD 2 1-3, 7); American Composers Alliance (CD 1 9-!); Manuscript (CD 1 8; CD 2 8); C. F. Peters, Inc. (CD 1 3-7; CD 2 4-6, @); Max Eschig (CD 2 9); 0 ! # Schlesinger (Robert Lienau) (CD 2 - ); Stainer & Bell (CD 2 ) 8.559355

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Robert Helps (1928-2001) Also available from Spectrum Concerts Berlin: Robert Helps is not only the pianist’s pianist restricted to verbal dedications to other composers; with and the composer’s composer, but he is the Helps they became short profiles, pieces in which he composer’s pianist and the pianist’s composer, observes the tonal language of his colleagues, takes it for, since his teen-age performance of music over, varies it in his own way and rethinks it. that was deemed unperformable he has played Naturally Helps’s experience as an interpreter also incomparably compositions which other influenced his composing. He was completely at ease pianists could not or would not perform. The with large, but never sprawling forms; but above all he singular pianistic mastery which he brought to was the master of lyrical concentration. As an interpreter these performances moulds his own writing for he knew for how long the tension of a musical arc could piano, from which pianists have discovered be sustained. The driving force of rhythm and its resources of nuance, rhythmic subtlety, opposite, the almost long-forgotten virtue of repose, dynamic control and sound, which endow their persisting in a harmonic atmosphere, are features of his own playing with a new sensitivity and work. Both come together in a sound-world which is not sensibility. His chamber and orchestral limited to traditional harmonic associations and their compositions are not pianistic transcriptions delicate concentration. It springs always from the specific but the fresh realization of the same awareness concept of the work. In Helps’s music instrumental in these non-pianistic media. He long has been virtuosity manifests itself as tonal quality, not as a legend in his time, and he deserves it. superficial acrobatics. One should not hear from the music that it is difficult to play, or take account of how 8.557153 8.572213 Milton Babbitt, 1996 much trouble the interpreter has had with a work, but rather the persuasiveness of the artistic result. Helps The Chamber Music of Robert Helps mastered many ways of expressing himself as a composer but did not limit himself exclusively to any particular one. Robert Helps and Spectrum Concerts Berlin are closely The diversity of his forms of expression finds its inner connected. The history they share is rooted in coherence in a unique personal style. Metaphorically transatlantic cultural tensions and connections, which are speaking, one can recognize his handwriting, regardless Spectrum Concert Berlin’s raison d’être. In a more of whether he writes in ink, pencil or brush. But in every personal sense it is rooted in Helps’s “double life” as a genre it achieves a particular aura. composer and a performing musician. Both kinds of musical professionalism came for him from one source. CD 1 He stressed the importance of live performance and imbued each of them with a special character. The Helps and paradox: Postludium interpreter must have appropriated a work in order to present it to the public with his own stamp upon it. That The recording begins with a typical Helps paradox. was Helps’s artistic creed. Through the constant inner Postludium means Epilogue. Helps placed the eight- collaboration of Helps as both composer and “inventor”, minute piece at the end of his three-movement Serenade and of Helps the interpreter, his œuvre contains works but he sanctioned performances of it as a stand-alone which have become rare of their kind: transcriptions and work without the other movements – the Fantasy for homages. In his transcriptions he brought a new character violin and piano and the Nocturne for string quartet. He 8.559173 to works written by other artists. His “homages” are not starts the Postlude, however, like a prelude: with horn

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fanfares which constantly delineate a particular tonal composed originally as an independent piano piece Etüden fügen den ohnehin hohen technischen seine Kammermusikwerke immer wieder auf und area, with gestures of invitation and promise. Violin and called Radiance but later Helps identified in it the Herausforderungen noch astronomische Schwierig- verliehen ihnen mustergültige, vitale Deutungen. Das piano answer the call. potential which lay in its idiosyncratic sound world. keiten hinzu. Für ihn eröffnete – ähnlich wie für Robert Klavierstück Shall We Dance inspirierte den Maler Alan The violin continues with the final notes of the When he received the commission from the Helps – die souveräne Virtuosität die Möglichkeit, Magee zu einem Bild, das inzwischen fast zum Emblem melody which are integrated into the fanfares. After Koussevitzky Foundation for his piano quartet he chose Werke des bekannten Repertoires in gesteigerter, für Spectrum Concerts Berlin wurde. Mit gutem Grund, playing an accompanying rôle the piano emerges ever Radiance as the starting-point for his new work. intensivierter Klanglichkeit erfahrbar zu machen. denn auch Helps’ Klavierstück wirkt wie ein more strongly into the foreground. The piece ends like an Passages from it are echoed in the middle of the second Godowsky’s Kompositionen bleiben im Schatten seiner konzentrierter Ausdruck dessen, was das Bestreben von epilogue. It gets quieter, dies away and becomes more movement in which the strings, as an independent pianistischen Leistungen. Helps erinnert an den Spectrum Concerts Berlin war und bleibt: der distant as the three parts assume the character of element, are first introduced over the piano. The third Komponisten Leopold Godowsky und den Interpreten transatlantische Brückenschlag unabhängig von reminiscences. The horn part vanishes into the ether, movement, with its simple beginning in the strings, Godowsky, in dem er zwei von desen Chopin politischen Konjunkturen und Trübungen. something which not every virtuoso player of this appears at first like a transformation of, and antithesis to, Bearbeitungen aufführte. Shall We Dance könnte man als eine Hommage an instrument achieves, the violin plays flautando while the the Radiance idea. The harsh entry of the piano, Man könnte in Robert Helps einen Seelen- Wien, genauer: an die Zweite Wiener Schule, den piano settles on those limpid textures which distinguish however, which silences the strings, turns the Scherzo verwandten von John Ireland sehen. Gewiss faszinierte Komponistenkreis um Arnold Schönberg und Alban Helps’s style. Somewhere in the middle, after the into a scene of conflict. A solution is suggested at the end ihn die schöne Musik Irelands, die er oft gespielt hat; Berg, bezeichnen. Fast eine Viertelstunde Musik zaubert virtuosic and dynamic climax of the violin and the piano, when the strings and piano come together in a unified überdies hat er einige seiner Lieder für Klavier allein Helps aus einer knappen Idee, einem kurzen the horn follows with its big solo, devotes itself more to sound which contains clear references to the Prelude. arrangiert. John Ireland wurde zu seiner Zeit durchaus Erinnerungsbild an den Walzer. Er bringt das Motiv melodic playing and confronts the fanfares with its own Finally the Postlude introduces an extended respektiert, doch er erreichte nie einen solchen nach allen Regeln der Kunst zum Sprechen, zum echoes, Helps imperceptibly shifts the gears of the development of the opening movement, but now for the Bekanntheitsgrad wie etwa seine zeitgenössischen Leuchten in verschiedenen Farben, macht es zum work’s character, completing the transformation from whole ensemble. Up to this point the course of the work Kollegen Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst und Zentrum virtuoser Steigerungen und Schichtungen. the inviting prelude to a contemplative postlude. seems to be like the exposition of an opening thesis (first Frank Bridge. Der vorliegende Live-Mitschnitt des The Erinnern wir uns: War nicht das erste Zwölftonstück ein Helps was familiar with Brahms’s Horn Trio, Op. 40, movement), its debate through argument and contradiction Darkened Valley (Walking along the darkened valley / Walzer? Und das erste Klavierstück, mit dem sich and he knew that musical reminiscence in this work had (second and third movements) and its validation in a new With silent melancholy) war die vierte und letzte Schönberg aus der überlieferten Klanggrammatik löste, an especially important significance. The Postlude is and larger form (fourth movement), a model of dialectical Zugabe, die Robert Helps am 6. November 2000 im war es nicht auch aus einem stilisierten Walzer heraus suffused with this knowledge. thinking expressed through music. Almost as if Kammermusiksaal der Berliner Philharmonie spielte. erfunden? Und klingen in Shall We Dance nicht Schumann’s words ‘fast zu ernst’ (‘almost too serious’) Robert Helps war den Spectrum Concerts Berlin Erinnerungen an Alban Bergs Klaviersonate op. 1 an, Piano Quartet occurred to him, Helps adds a postscript to the postlude, a eng verbunden. Als Pianist wirkte er in ihren Konzerten die ebenfalls aus der walzerartigen Dreierbewegung fifth movement, which he called The Players Gossip.He mit, ein origineller, überzeugender Geist auch in der heraus komponiert ist? Helps also plays with the relationship between prelude refers jokingly to Goethe’s characterization of the string Art, wie er überlieferte Werke, Chopin, Schönberg unter and postlude in his piano quartet. The musical flow, quartet as a conversation between sensible partners who anderen, interpretierte. Die Spectrum-Musiker führten Habakuk Traber which tends towards endless melody from a series of nevertheless try to outdo each other through their chords (also apparently a paradox) that characterizes the arguments, speaking through their virtuosity and first movement, appears again in the fourth movement. friendship. Helps had a sense of humour, understood it and The Prelude ranges through several trajectories which practised it as an expression of culture. explore an idea in free variations. They are differentiated in several layers with their own laws of motion, Quintet transform the sound and seem to falter at times. Yet the piece maintains a coherent character which is established Helps wrote his Quintet for the prestigious New York by its harmony. One is reminded among other things of new music ensemble the Da Capo Chamber Players. the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin and of his The instrumentation of the ensemble – flute, clarinet, attempt to create a modern music from new sounds. As violin, cello and piano – has a historical model: it was in Scriabin’s Preludes the first movement of Helps’s the line-up of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, a Quartet is given to the piano alone. The movement was work consisting predominantly of short movements.

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und ich wollte keinesfalls ein neues schreiben, Die Bearbeitungen With just five musicians Helps obtains a wealth of interweave, drift apart, create tension and release, freely das ich weniger günstig beurteilen würde. timbres which have no equal. Each of the three depicts the portrait of a musician in which the partners, Auf jeden Fall fühlte ich einigen Druck auf Die Musik lebt aus der Tradition selbst dann, wenn sie movements, which proceed with no breaks, has its own like artists, confide in, and at the same time challenge mir lasten und begann, indem ich den vielleicht diese bricht. Zur Tradition der großen Klaviervirtuosen character. Helps creates this character in particular in each other. Not only the work’s title, but also the wichtigsten (ernstesten? am tiefsten gehörten die Kunst des Improvisierens und die Kunst the first two movements in paradoxical ways: through complex structure, the concentrated energy and the great empfundenen?) Satz schrieb – einen des Bearbeitens. Franz Liszt, Ferruccio Busoni und variety and transformation. Different sound groups demands placed on the interpreters all make reference to ausgedehnten, verhaltenen und irgendwie Leopold Godowsky haben vor allem die letztere alternate, form emerges like an object turning in the Arnold Schoenberg’s Fantasy, Op. 47. außerirdischen langsamen Satz. Danach wurde intensiv gepflegt. Bearbeiten bedeutete für sie eine light which gets refracted into different spectres and In the Duo for cello and piano Helps asserts his der zweite Satz umgeben von einem Form des Aneignens und des Übersetzens. Sie verband intensity. The beginning of the first two movements – musical sensibility and command of compositional liebenswerten, klar strukturierten Eröffnungs- sich mit der Fähigkeit, eine elementare Eigenschaft des high in the melody instruments in the first, deep in the technique. The work remains clear, even in its most Allegro und einem beträchtlich glutvolleren und pianistischen Vortrags bewusst zu machen. Die piano in the second – sets out the differences of powerful, darkest and most complex passages. It is in hitzigeren dritten Satz, den ich – vielleicht nicht Wirkung bedeutender Klavierinterpretationen beruht character between them. The closing movement three movements. In its diversity and its fluid changes of besonders feinsinnig, aber treffend – Toccata zum großen Teil auf Suggestion oder Simulation. Sie resolves the contrasts, as it were, through distance. This, character the first section could be described as a frustrata nannte.« ruft Klangvorstellungen wach, welche die physikalische the quiet one of the three movements, begins like an fantasy in which Alban Berg’s art of transition is Realität des Klavierklangs weit übersteigen. Helps imaginary choir without words, continues with a series perfectly imagined. The middle part is played by the Der Titel des ersten Satzes – Duets – mag andeuten, beherrschte diese Kunst als Pianist und als Bearbeiter. of short duets between the piano and one of the other cello alone. This cadenza begins lyrically, gathers in dass das Eröffnungsstück nicht als ein geschlossener Felix Mendelssohns Schilflied nach einem der seinerzeit instruments and takes its leave with a sustained chord rhetorical intensity, increases in virtuosity, takes a step Charakter, sondern als Konstellation aus drei beliebten romantischen Gedichte Nikolaus Lenaus played by the string and wind quartet and with those back once more and leads into the final slow part. The Charakteren komponiert ist: der ruhigen Violinmelodie, verwandelt er in ein Lied ohne Worte ganz im Sinne glassy, bell-like piano sounds from which one instantly cello’s cantilenas, the glassy piano sounds, the descent der bewegteren Cellostimme und den raschen ihres Erfinders: In ihnen spreche die Musik deutlicher recognizes Helps’s music. into the stygian depths and the rising farewell are the Staccatofigurationen im Klavier. Sie gehen im Laufe als Worte dies könnten. Melancholie transformiert sich phases of a fading away, a leave-taking in music. des Satzes unterschiedliche Koalitionen und in diesem Stück in eine innige Liebeserklärung mit Bob Helps is an American maverick. While Partnerschaften ein. Am Ende schließt sich das Cello entrückenden und berückenden Klangbildern. Melos many composers of his day rushed to embrace Robert Helps could take amazing musical den Klavierfigurationen an. – In wenigen anderen und Figuration verschmelzen in Helps’ Klavierfassung atonality, he continued to create his coolly chances when playing piano, yet he did so Sätzen komponierte Helps so intensiv das Erleben der wie in seinen Originalkompositionen miteinander. John tonal marvels – often piano pieces of a refined, without ever making you not feel safe in your Zeit wie im langsamen Mittelstück des zweiten Trios. Irelands Love is a Sickness Full of Woes schließt Helps unique sensibility. He played these pieces audience seat. I think the reason for that was his Das erste Trio ist wie das spätere dreisätzig in seiner Bearbeitung direkt an Mendelssohn an – wie himself, with matchless skill, being, as he was, calm body language, plus a sense of physical and konzipiert, doch stehen die drei Sätze in anderem eine Fortsetzung, wie eine Antwort, allmählich erst the premier contemporary pianist of his time. expressive economy that projected joy rather Verhältnis zueinander. Das Zentrum bildet keine Elegie, merkt man, wie der musikalische Weg immer weiter than reserve. His sense of rhythm was precise, sondern ein energisch rascher Satz, eine stilisierte Tanz- vom Schilflied wegführt – in eine andere Harmonik, in David Del Tredici, 2011 yet flexible and internalized, geared toward long Szene, die teils kräftig und derb, teils leicht und agil eine andere Art des Zusammenhangs, in eine andere Art curvy singing lines as opposed to bar lines. daherkommt – ein typisches Scherzo. Ihm geht ein der Virtuosität. Ireland wirkt so beinahe wie eine The Duos Bob’s own compositions and transcriptions also erster Satz voraus, dessen Charakter Helps mesto, Mendelssohn-Metamorphose. Dass Helps Francis seem to reflect these characteristics, in that they traurig, nannte. Kantilenen erst der Violine, dann auch Poulencs As-Dur-Intermezzo in sein Programm Between the ensemble pieces on this recording are are cannily crafted and refined, yet never rigid des Cellos, bestimmen den Eindruck. Das Klavier aufnahm, bedeutet eine Hommage an einen Musiker, der Helps’s Duos. The composer begins his three- for a second. And how marvelous was his sense beteiligt sich stellenweise an ihnen, gibt jedoch wie er selbst Komponist und Pianist war, und der, wie movement Serenade with the Fantasy for violin and of placing and spacing notes in time – you hear hauptsächlich dem »Aussingen« den Hintergrund, oft in Helps, die Kunst beherrschte, Gesanglichkeit und piano. Like the Postlude this piece can be played on its that in the best Romantic pianists, but rarely kreisenden Motiven. Das Finale eröffnet Helps mit virtuose Brillanz komponierend und spielend own. It is a work for true virtuosi whose instrumental from modern players. The classical music mottoartigen Signalen. Was ihnen folgt, ist ein miteinander zu verknüpfen. – Mit Leopold Godowsky brilliance signifies a heightening of expressive mainstream doesn’t know Robert Helps, yet he auskomponierter, allmählicher Abschied, ein aber führt Helps einen imaginären Dialog. Dem possibilities. Helps wrote it for his long-standing remains sorely missed. Verschwinden der Musik. polnisch-amerikanischen Pianisten und Komponisten chamber music partner, the violinist Isidore Cohen. The war nichts zu schwer. Seine Bearbeitungen von Chopins manner in which he lets both highly demanding parts Jed Distler, 2010

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CD 2 The title of the first movement – Duets – might suggest entsteht, wie wenn sich ein Körper im Licht dreht und Kunst des Übergangs perfekt weitergedacht wird. Der that the opening piece is composed not as a unified dieses in unterschiedlichen Spektren und unter- mittlere Teil gehört dem Cello allein. Diese Kadenz The second CD marks out the stylistic scope and portrays character but rather as a configuration and argument of schiedlicher Intensität bricht. Der Beginn der ersten beginnt lyrisch, gewinnt rhetorische Eindringlichkeit, Robert Helps the interpreter. Helps, who was born in three characters: the quiet violin melody, the more beiden Sätze – ganz hoch in den Melodieinstrumenten steigert sich zur Virtuosität, nimmt sich wieder zurück New Jersey and gave concerts and taught in various parts agitated voice of the cello and the rapid staccato der erste, tief im Klavier der zweite – zeichnet die und leitet so in den letzten, langsamen Teil über. of the United States, wrote two piano trios. The first dates figurations in the piano part. In the course of the Charaktergegensätze zwischen ihnen vor. Das Kantilenen des Cellos, gläserne Klavierklänge, Abstieg from 1957, in his early phase as a composer; the second, movement they undergo various coalitions and Schlussstück löst die Kontraste gleichsam durch in dunkle Tiefenregionen und ein Abschied nach oben written forty years later, belongs to the works from his partnerships. At the end the cello takes up the piano Distanz. Der ruhige unter den drei Sätzen beginnt wie bilden hier die Stationen eines Verklingens, eines last period. The range that the composer encompassed figurations. In few other movements did Helps compose ein Fantasiechor ohne Worte, setzt sich fort mit einer Abschieds in Musik. was relatively open to experience. But above all what can so intensively in response to the experience of time as Serie kurzer Duette des Klaviers mit je einem der also be heard is the unity of a musical thinking and style he did in the slow middle movement of the second trio. anderen Instrumente und verabschiedet sich mit einem CD 2 which, through varied compositional methods and Like the later trio the first trio is conceived in three langen Akkord des Streicher-Bläser-Quartetts und jenen different artistic experiences, remained discernible movements, but these relate differently to one another. gläsern-glockenartigen Klavierklängen, an denen man Die zweite CD steckt den stilistischen Rahmen ab und throughout. A strong personality speaks from such an The focal point is not an Elegy but an energetic brisk Helps’ Musik untrüglich erkennt. porträtiert den Interpreten Robert Helps. Zwei identity which, through teaching from which one learns movement, a stylised dance-scene which is partly Klaviertrios schrieb der Komponist, der in New Jersey one’s trade, is not distorted, but furthered. As a young powerful and rough, partly light and agile – a typical Die Duos geboren wurde und in den verschiedenen Regionen der man Helps had made the right decision in his choice of scherzo. It is preceded by a first movement which Helps USA konzertierte und lehrte. Das erste entstand 1957, in teachers – Roger Sessions in the United States and Nadia calls mesto, sad. Cantilenas, first from the violin, then Zwischen den Ensemblestücken stehen auf dieser CD der frühen Phase seines Komponierens; das andere, Boulanger in Paris. from the cello determine its character. In a few places Helps’ Duos. Mit der Fantasy für Violine und Klavier vierzig Jahre später geschrieben, gehört zur Gruppe Helps’s comments on his second trio say much the piano joins in with them but gives the “melody” to ließ der Komponist seine dreisätzige Serenade beginnen. seiner letzten Werke. Die Spanne, die der Komponist about the relationship between the two works, which the background, often in circular motifs. Helps opens Das Stück kann jedoch wie das Postludium auch für sich durchlief, wird im Vergleich erfahrbar. Zu hören ist aber symbolize the beginning and the end of his career: the Finale with motto-like signals. What follows them is gespielt werden. Es ist ein Werk für echte Virtuosen, vor allem die Einheit eines musikalischen Denkens und a gradual farewell, a fading away of the music. denen instrumentale Brillanz vor allem eine Steigerung eines Stils, der durch veränderte Kompositions- “Two reasons, among others, worked towards der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten bedeutet. Helps schrieb es methoden und durch wechselnde künstlerische making this piece a ‘major’ effort: Robert Helps was always an unfashionable für seinen langjährigen Kammermusikpartner, den Erfahrungen hindurch immer erkennbar blieb. Aus 1 – I had not written a multiple movement work composer, which is a big reason his music Geiger Isidore Cohen. In der Art, wie er die beiden solcher Identität spricht eine starke Persönlichkeit, die in several years and sounds increasingly fresh, poetic, and höchst anspruchsvollen Parts ineinandergreifen, durch den Unterricht, in dem man sein Metier lernt, 2 – I had always considered my Trio No. 1 independent. Even in the self-conscious auseinanderdriften, Spannung erzeugen und lösen lässt, nicht verbogen, sondern gefördert wurde. Helps hatte als (1957) as perhaps the best piece of my early dialectically driven 50s and 60s he continued to zeichnet er in freier Form das Porträt eines Musizierens, junger Mann mit der Wahl seiner Lehrer – Roger output and I certainly didn’t want to write a ask the most basic questions, about bei dem sich die Partner wie Artisten aufeinander Sessions in den USA und Nadia Boulanger in Paris – new one that I would view less favorably. expressivity, honesty, and clarity. He was also verlassen und sich gerade dadurch auch gegenseitig gut und glücklich entschieden. In any event, I felt some pressure on me and an exceptionally original pianist. His music for herausfordern. Nicht nur der Titel, auch die komplexe Helps’ eigene Bemerkungen zu seinem zweiten Trio began by writing perhaps the most important his instrument is not especially pianistic. It Struktur, die konzentrierte Energie und die hohen sagen einiges über das Verhältnis der beiden Werke aus, (most serious? most heartfelt?) movement – a sounds, but it is also awkward to play, the notes Ansprüche an die Interpreten nehmen deutlichen Bezug die für Anfang und Spätzeit seiner Laufbahn stehen: lengthy, sustained, and somewhat other- chosen not by his fingers but by his very auf Arnold Schönbergs Fantasy op. 47. worldly, very slow second movement. That over, specific, discriminating ear. His music is alive Im Duo für Violoncello und Klavier bestätigt Helps »Zwei Gründe unter anderen machten dieses the second movement got surrounded by a quite because it is so insistently his, at his own pace, seinen Klangsinn und seine hohe Satzkunst. Das Stück Werk [das zweite Trio] zu einer größeren amiable textural allegro first movement and a in his own world. bleibt transparent auch in den kräftigsten, dunkelsten Anstrengung: considerably more torrid and impetuous third und komplexesten Passagen. Es ist dreiteilig angelegt. 1. Ich hatte seit mehreren Jahren kein movement with the perhaps not-in-the-best- John Harbison, 2010 Den ersten Abschnitt könnte man in seiner mehrsätziges Werk mehr geschrieben. taste, but nonetheless descriptive title Toccata Vielgestaltigkeit und seinen fließenden Charakter- 2. Ich hatte immer mein Trio Nr. 1 als das wohl frustrata.” wechseln als Fantasie bezeichnen, in der Alban Bergs beste Werk aus meiner ersten Phase betrachtet

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durchsichtigen Texturen, die Helps’ Stil auszeichnen. zunächst wie eine Verwandlung und Entgegnung auf die The Transcriptions opened up for Godowsky the possibility of bringing to Irgendwo in der Mitte, vielleicht dort, wo nach der Radiance-Idee. Der harsche Einsatz des Klaviers, der well-known works in the repertoire the experience of a virtuos dynamischen Steigerung von Violine und die Streicher zum Verstummen bringt, macht das The art of improvisation and of transcription belongs to more heightened, more intense, musicality. Godowsky’s Klavier das Horn zum großen Solo ansetzt, sich mehr Scherzo jedoch zum Ort des Konflikts. Eine Lösung the greatest piano virtuosi. Most notably Franz Liszt, own compositions remain in the shadow of his pianistic dem melodischen Spiel widmet und die Fanfaren mit deutet sich am Ende an, wenn Streicher und Klavier sich Ferruccio Busoni and Leopold Godowsky assiduously achievements. Helps brings to mind Godowsky the ihren eigenen Echos konfrontiert, legt Helps den Hebel zu einem gemeinsamen Klangbild zusammenfinden, das cultivated transcription. For them transcribing meant a composer and the interpreter in that he performed two of des Werkcharakters unmerklich um, vollzieht die deutliche Rückblicke auf das Präludium enthält. sort of acquisition and of interpretation. Transcription the Godowsky transcriptions of Chopin. Wandlung vom auffordernden Vor- zum nachsinnenden Das Postludium stellt schließlich eine erweiterte allied itself with the ability to make one aware of an One could see in Robert Helps a kindred spirit of Nachspiel. Helps kannte Brahms’ Horntrio op. 40, und Ausarbeitung des Anfangssatzes nunmehr für das elementary feature of pianistic performance. In large John Ireland. Ireland’s beautiful music, which Helps er wusste, dass die musikalisch gestaltete Erinnerung in gesamte Ensemble vor. Der Verlauf des Werkes part the impact of distinguished piano interpretation is often played, fascinated him; furthermore Helps has diesem Werk eine besonders wichtige Bedeutung erscheint bis hierher wie das Aufstellen einer based on suggestion or simulation. It evokes perceptions arranged a number of Ireland’s songs for solo piano. In erhielt. Dieses Wissen klingt im Postludium mit. Ausgangsthese (1. Satz), deren Erörterung durch of sound which far transcend the physical reality of the his own time John Ireland was well respected yet he Befragung und Widerspruch (2. und 3. Satz) und ihre sound of the piano. As both pianist and transcriber never attained the celebrity accorded to his Das Klavierquartett Bestätigung in neuer, größerer Gestalt (4. Satz), also wie Helps was the master of this art. He transformed contemporary colleagues Ralph Vaughan Williams, ein musikalisch ausgeführtes Modell dialektischen Mendelssohn’s Schilflied, based on one of the most Gustav Holst and Frank Bridge. This live recording of Mit dem Verhältnis von Prä- und Postludium spielt Denkens. Als ob ihm das nach Schumanns Worten »fast popular romantic poems of the day by Nikolaus Lenau, The Darkened Valley (Walking along the darkened Helps auch in seinem Klavierquartett. Der Klangfluss, zu ernst« vorkam, ließ Helps dem Nachspiel noch einen into a song without words, completely in the spirit of its valley / With silent melancholy) was the fourth and final die tendenziell unendliche Melodie aus Akkordfolgen Nachtrag folgen, einen fünften Satz, den er the originator. Mendelssohn was convinced that in this encore which Robert Helps played on 6th November (auch das scheinbar ein Paradox), die den ersten Satz musicians gossip überschrieb. Scherzhaft erinnert er an genre music speaks more clearly than words ever could. 2000 in the Chamber Music Room in the Berlin bestimmt, erscheint im vierten wieder. Das Präludium Goethes Charakterisierung des Streichquartetts als einer In the Schilflied melancholy is transformed into a Philharmonie. bewegt sich in mehreren Umläufen, die wie freie Unterhaltung zwischen verständigen Partnern, die sich heartfelt declaration of love in rapt and bewitching Variationen einer Idee wirken. Sie differenzieren sich in bisweilen mit ihren Argumenten – sprich: ihrer sound-pictures. In Helps’s piano version melodic- I met Robert Helps during Spectrum Concerts mehrere Schichten mit eigenen rhythmischen Virtuosität und ihrer Leutseligkeit – zu überbieten writing and figuration coalesce as in his original Berlin’s American Music Week, in November Bewegungsgesetzen, wandeln ihr Klangbild, scheinen versuchen. Helps hatte Humor, er begriff und compositions. Helps links John Ireland’s Love is a 2000. His music, and Helps himself, made a für Momente zu stocken. Das Stück behält dennoch praktizierte ihn als Ausdruck von Bildung. Sickness Full of Woes directly with Mendelssohn – like profound and lasting impression. His Shall We einen einheitlichen Charakter. Er wird durch seine a continuation, like an answer and gradually one realises Dance was my introduction to his work; it felt Harmonik hergestellt. Sie erinnert unter anderem an den Das Quintett how the musical path leads on and on away from the entirely modern – opening up possibility and russischen Komponisten Alexander Skrjabin und dessen Schilflied – into another harmony, into another sort of space rather than enclosing them – while Ansatz, eine Musik der Moderne aus einem neuen Das Quintett komponierte Helps für eines der relationship, into another sort of virtuosity. The Ireland expressing a timeless and finely nuanced Klangempfinden heraus zu schaffen. Wie Skrjabins renommierten Neue-Musik-Ensembles in New York, acts almost like a metamorphosis of Mendelssohn. empathy. His performances at the Berlin Préludes bleibt der erste Satz von Helps’ Quartett allein die Da Capo Chamber Players. Die Besetzung – Flöte, The fact that Helps performed in his programme Kammermusiksaal were moving, technically dem Klavier überlassen. Er war ursprünglich als Klarinette, Violine, Violoncello und Klavier – hat ein Francis Poulenc’s Intermezzo in A flat major signifies a brilliant and unforgettable. In our conversations eigenständiges Klavierstück mit dem Titel Radiance historisches Vorbild: das Instrumentalensemble von homage to a musician who was, like Helps himself, both Helps spoke with understatement – with the komponiert, später erkannte Helps die Potenziale, die in Arnold Schönbergs Pierrot lunaire, einem Werk aus composer and pianist, and who, also like Helps, right few words – leaving the impression of a der eigentümlichen Klanglichkeit des Stückes liegen. überwiegend kurzen Stücken. Helps erreicht mit fünf mastered the art of combining melodic appeal and deep and hard-won understanding of the way Als er von der Kussewitzky Stiftung den Kompositions- Musikern einen Reichtum an Klangfarben, der virtuosic brilliance, both in his compositions and in his things are for us here on this planet. But Helps’s auftrag für sein Klavierquartett erhielt, wählte er seinesgleichen sucht. Jeder der drei Sätze, die ohne playing. But with Leopold Godowsky Helps conducts eyes conveyed a sense of humour too – a sense Radiance zum Ausgangspunkt seines neuen Werkes. Unterbrechung ineinander übergehen, trägt seinen an imaginary dialogue. Nothing was too difficult to play of mischief. Is this what I remember about him, Passagen daraus klingen in der Mitte des zweiten Satzes eigenen Charakter. Helps schafft ihn insbesondere in for the Polish-American pianist and composer. In his or what I still hear in the music? nach, in dem sich die Streicher zunächst als selbständige den ersten beiden Stücken auf paradoxe Weise: durch transcriptions of Chopin’s Studies he adds yet more Ereignisebene über dem Klavier einführen. Der dritte Vielgestaltigkeit und permanenten Wandel. astronomical difficulties to the already great technical Alan Magee, 2010 Satz wirkt mit seinem luziden Anfang in den Streichern Verschiedene Klanggruppen lösen sich ab, die Form challenges. Just as for Robert Helps, supreme virtuosity

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Robert Helps was closely connected with Spectrum School, the group of composers around Arnold Robert Helps (1928-2001) Concerts Berlin in Berlin. As a pianist he performed in Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Helps conjures up almost a their concerts, an original, persuasive spirit in the way in quarter of an hour of music from a short musical idea, a Robert Helps und Spectrum Concerts Berlin teilen eine delikate Anreicherung begrenzt. Er entspringt jeweils which he interpreted works by, among others, Chopin reminiscence of the waltz. With every trick in the book gemeinsame Geschichte. Sie wurzelt einerseits in den der konkreten Werkidee. Instrumentale Virtuosität and Schoenberg. Spectrum musicians performed his he contrives to make it speak, to glow with different transatlantischen Kulturverbindungen und -spannungen, erscheint bei Helps als Klangqualität, nicht als chamber music works time and again and gave them colours and to make it the focal point of virtuosic andererseits in Helps’ »Doppelexistenz« als Komponist vordergründige Akrobatik. Man muss der Musik nicht exemplary and vibrant interpretations. The piano piece intensification and accretion. Let us remember: was not und Pianist. In Wirklichkeit handelt es sich allerdings bei anhören, dass sie schwer zu spielen ist, und beim Shall We Dance inspired the painter Alan Magee to the first twelve-note piece a waltz? And was not the first Helps’ Wirken als Komponist und als Interpret nicht um Interpreten zählt nicht die Mühe, die er mit einem Werk produce a painting which has since become almost the piano piece with which Schoenberg broke with ein musikalisches Doppelleben, sondern um zwei hat, sondern die Überzeugungskraft des künstlerischen emblem for Spectrum Concerts Berlin. With good conventional tonality also derived from a stylised waltz? verschiedene Ausdrucksformen ein und desselben Resultats. Helps beherrschte viele Methoden, sich reason, for Helps’s piano piece has the effect of being a And are there not in Shall We Dance echoes of Alban Künstlertums. Helps wusste, dass jedes neue Werk auch kompositorisch auszudrücken; an keine band er sich concentrated expression of what were, and still remain, Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op. 1, which was also composed eine Deutung seiner musikalischen Vorgeschichte mit ausschließlich. Die Vielfalt der Äußerungsformen findet the aims of Spectrum Concerts Berlin: transatlantic after the waltz-like triple-time movement? einschließt; keiner komponiert voraussetzungslos. Den den inneren Zusammenhalt in einem unverwechselbaren bridge-building independent of political trends and Vortrag notierter Musik, sei sie alt oder neu, verstand er Personalstil. Bildlich gesprochen: Man erkennt seine interference. Habakuk Traber stets als einen Akt der Neuschöpfung, der immer anders Handschrift unabhängig davon, ob er mit Tinte, Blei-, One could describe Shall We Dance as a homage to ausfällt. Er betonte die Bedeutung der Live-Aufführung Farbstift oder Pinsel schreibt. Aber in jeder Art gewinnt Vienna or, more precisely, to the Second Viennese English translation: David Stevens und verlieh jeder ihr besonderes Gepräge. Der Interpret sie eine besondere Ausstrahlung. muss sich ein Werk angeeignet haben, um es dem Publikum wie sein eigenes nahe zu bringen. Das war CD 1 Helps’ künstlerische Überzeugung. Durch die permanente innere Zusammenarbeit von Helps, dem Helps und das Paradox: Postludium Komponisten und »Erfinder«, und Helps, dem Interpreten, enthält sein Œuvre Werke, die in ihrer Art Die CD beginnt auf gut Helps’sche Art mit einem sonst selten geworden sind: Bearbeitungen und Paradox. Postludium heißt »Nachspiel«. Helps stellte Hommages. In Bearbeitungen gab er bereits fertigen das achtminütige Stück ans Ende seiner dreisätzigen Kompositionen anderer Künstler eine neue Gestalt. Serenade, ließ aber auch Aufführungen als Einzelwerk »Hommages« beschränken sich bei ihm nicht auf ohne die beiden anderen Sätze – die Fantasy für Violine äußerliche Widmungen an andere Komponisten; bei und Klavier und das Nocturne für Streichquartett – Helps wurden sie zu Kurzporträts, zu Stücken, in denen gelten. Das Postludium eröffnet er allerdings wie ein er die Tonsprache seiner Kollegen betrachtet, übernimmt Vorspiel: mit Hornfanfaren, die in Varianten immer und auf seine Weise variiert und weiterdenkt. wieder einen bestimmten Tonraum durchmessen, mit Die Erfahrung des Interpreten Helps beeinflusste Gesten der Aufforderung und des Versprechens. Geige selbstverständlich auch sein Komponieren. Er war und Klavier folgen dem Ruf. Die Violine setzt die durchaus ein Freund großer, aber niemals ausufernder melodischen Ausklänge fort, die in die Fanfaren Formen; er war aber vor allem ein Meister der lyrischen eingebunden waren. Das Klavier spielt sich aus der Konzentration. Als Interpret wusste er, wie viel und wie Begleitfunktion immer stärker in den Vordergrund. lange ein musikalischer Spannungsbogen trägt. Die Das Stück endet wie ein Nachspiel. Es wird leiser, Triebkraft des Rhythmus und ihr Gegenstück, die fast verklingt, entfernt sich, die drei Parts nehmen mehr und zeitvergessene Ruhe, das Verharren in einem mehr den Charakter von Reminiszenzen an. Die Photographs of Robert Helps by Dennis Kendall Hall, James Gudeman, harmonischen Ambiente, zeichnen seine Werke aus. Hornpartie entschwindet in Höhen, die nicht jedem Dan Hunt, Tom Berndt, Mary Doyle and Scott Locorini Beides verbindet sich mit einem Klangsinn, der sich Virtuosen dieses Instruments gelingen, die Violine nicht auf überlieferte Harmonieverbindungen und deren spielt »flautando«, das Klavier wählt jene

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Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer ATOS Trio

Dutch clarinettist Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer studied at The Juilliard School in Founded in 2003 by violinist Annette von Hehn, cellist Stefan New York with Charles Neidich under the auspices of the Fulbright International Heinemeyer and pianist Thomas Hoppe, the prize-winning Scholarship Program. He has won first prize at several international competitions, ATOS Trio strives to convey the same spirit as in string quartet including the International Competition for Youth (Lisbon 1994) and the RTBF Jeunes playing. The ATOS Trio was awarded the Kalichstein-Laredo- Solistes (Brussels 1993). In 1999 he made his début in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Robinson Award in 2007 and the first and grand prize at the and performed regularly as a Rising Star artist. As a soloist he has appeared with 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. The leading orchestras in The Netherlands, and gave the world première of Willem Jeths’s trio was also first prize-winner at the Schubert International Clarinet Concerto, Yellow Darkness, which was written for him, and Euro by Theo Competition and has appeared at many major venues in the Abazis at Carnegie Hall in 2001. He has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin United States and Europe. The ATOS Trio enjoys since 2000, and also performs regularly with other ensembles and colleagues. He was collaboration with BBC Radio 3 as New Generation Artists, awarded an “Edison” for his début CD. Recordings of chamber music of Dohnányi, and they have made numerous studio recordings and Harbison, Toch and Hindemith have been released by Naxos. Challenge Records has performed at major music festivals throughout Great Britain, released a CD of the Reger sonatas which was met with outstanding critical praise. The as well as at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Brahms sonatas with pianist Hans Eijsackers were also released by Challenge Records Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in early 2011. He is the founder and artistic director of the Dutch Tone Festival in ’s- Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, City of London Festival, Hertogenbosch, and teaches at the Fontys Music Academy in Tilburg. Budapest Spring, and Enescu Festival in Bucharest. The ATOS trio has recorded for ARS Musici, Azica and CPO featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Kirchner, Schumann, Suk and Mendelssohn. Marieke Schneemann

Marieke Schneemann studied with Frans Vester at the Royal Conservatory of The Ronald Carbone Hague. She graduated with distinction and was awarded the Nicolaï Prize. She also won first prize in the Tromp Competition and was awarded the Zilveren Vriendenkrans Ronald Carbone, violist, enjoys a diverse musical life encompassing chamber of the Concertgebouw. From 1988 to 1997 she was principal flautist with the music, recording and solo performances. He is principal violist of the American Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. She is a member of the Ballet Theatre Orchestra, a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s as well an Fodor Quintet, the Amsterdam Bach Soloists, and the Netherlands Wind Ensemble. associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has participated in Recordings are available on Naxos, Challenge Classics, Attacca, and Chandos. These programmes of Spectrum Concerts Berlin since 1989 and was a member of the recordings include premiers of Wolfgang Rihm, Giya Kancheli, Tristan Keuris, Composers String Quartet. He is also on the faculty of Vassar College. He currently Willem Jeths, John Zorn, Luca Francesconi, Theo Loevendie, and Louis Andriessen. has recordings on Naxos, CRI, Albany, and Reference-Records. Ronald Carbone She is a regular guest at the Delft Chamber Music Festival, Orlando Festival, Utrecht was a member of the Portsmouth Chamber Ensemble, the Lexington Trio and the International Chamber Music Festival, Toon Festival, and Spectrum Concerts Berlin. Griffes String Quartet, recipients of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, Since 2008 she has played in the newly founded Orlando Quintet with the most Inc. Award and two Artists International awards. He was also a member of the distinguished young wind players from Holland. In 2009 she founded Schneemann & Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Barcelona City Orchestra. Co., with the stated purpose of bringing chamber music programmes and trend-setting, authoritative performers together at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. She has been a Professor at the Amsterdam Conservatory since 1990.

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Frank Dodge Bernhard Krug

Cellist Frank Dodge founded Spectrum Concerts Berlin in 1988 and in 2005 Bernhard Krug began studying the horn at the age of sixteen with Anton Spectrum Concerts Berlin-USA., Inc. He studied the cello with Aldo Parisot, Hammer and studied piano from the age of six. He continued his studies Eberhard Finke, Pierre Fournier and Maurice Gendron and received a BM with Gerd Seifert at the University of Arts Berlin and later at the degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a MMA degree from Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Bernhard the Yale University Graduate School of Music. He has lived in Europe since Krug is first horn of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig and a member 1982, performing with the Berlin Philharmonic and in the 1980s he was a of the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra. He has appeared as horn soloist with member of the National Orchestra in Madrid and co-principal cellist of the numerous renowned orchestras including the Gewandhaus Orchestra, La Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Frank Dodge’s recordings with Spectrum Scala di Milano and the Musikverein in Vienna. As a chamber musician Concerts Berlin released by Naxos include works by Ernó´ von Dohnányi, he has toured extensively including Germany, France, Japan, Mexico, Robert Helps, John Harbison, two CDs of the music of Ernst Toch and of Austria, Spain and the United States. He is a founding member of the Stanley Walden. Support for Frank Dodge’s undertakings has come from Gewandhaus Oktett and teaches at the University of Music and Theatre sources including the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, Inc., the Ernst “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Leipzig. von Siemens Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Robert Helps Music trust, the Körber Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He also received fellowships from the Frank Naomi Niskala Huntington Beebe Foundation and Artist Individual Fellowships from the State of New Hampshire enabling him to further his work in Europe and in America. Japanese-American pianist Naomi Niskala, raised in upstate New York and Tokyo, He plays a cello by Antonio Casini made in 1676 in Modena and a cello by Japan, began her piano studies at age three. She has performed as a soloist and Jebran Yakoub dated 2010 from Cremona, Italy. www.spectrumconcerts.com chamber musician in North America, Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. In 2007, to high acclaim, she released the complete solo piano works of Robert Helps on two discs with Albany Records. She received her bachelor’s degree with Patricia Zander at the Annette von Hehn New England Conservatory, and then her master and doctoral degrees with Gilbert Kalish at Stony Brook University, and an Artist Diploma with Claude Frank at the Annette von Hehn was born in Kiel, Germany in 1978, began studying the violin at the Yale School of Music. She has served on the faculties of Wesleyan University, the age of four and leads an active life as soloist, chamber musician and recitalist across University of South Florida, and the University of North Dakota, and is currently Europe and overseas. In addition to performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Alice Assistant Professor of Music at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania where she Tully Hall, and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, she appears regularly in Europe at teaches piano and theory. festivals and with leading orchestras. In 2006 she was chamber music partner of Menahem Pressler, Gidon Kremer and Eduard Brunner at the Chamber Music Connects, the World Festival of the Kronberg Academy. She is top-prizewinner of the 2001 ARD International Music Competition in Munich. She received her Bachelor’s degree in 2000 from The Juilliard School in New York studying with Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman and completing her musical education in 2003 as a member of the solo class of Ilan Gronich at the University of Arts in Berlin. From 2001-2003 she was a scholarship recipient of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Orchestra Academy. She plays the Ex-Neaman Stradivarius, kindly on loan from the Neaman family.

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Frank Dodge Bernhard Krug

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Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer ATOS Trio

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Also available from Spectrum Concerts Berlin: AMERICAN CLASSICS ROBERT HELPS in Berlin Chamber Music with Piano

Spectrum Concerts Berlin ATOS Trio Robert Helps, Piano

8.559199 2 CDs 8.559696-97 20 CMYK NAXOS Playing Robert Time: HELPS 1:57:49 (1928-2001) OETHELPS: ROBERT Made in the USA. compact disc prohibited. Unauthorised public performance, broadcasting and copying of this All rights in this sound recording, artwork, texts and translations reserved. CD 1 55:36 1 Postlude (1964) 1 8:43 AMERICAN CLASSICS 8.559696-97 2 Fantasy (1963) 2 6:57 This recording is an exploration of 3 7 3 - Piano Quartet (1997) 17:52 Robert Helps’s ‘subtle sound world’ 8 Duo (1977) 4 8:10 9-! Piano Quintet (1997) 5 13:54 (ClassicsToday.com on Naxos 8.559199), and his shared history with Spectrum CD 2 62:13

Concerts Berlin. Highly regarded as 1-3 Trio I (1957) 6 14:36 & a ‘musician’s musician’, Helps is 4-6 Trio II (2000) 7 12:23 2011 Naxos Rights International Ltd.

7-# Helps plays Mendelssohn, Ireland, featured as both composer and Music with Piano Chamber Poulenc, Godowsky and Helps pianist. Postlude is suffused with an 8 live in Berlin 35:14 atmosphere of reminiscence, and the Spectrum Concerts Berlin flow of ‘endless melody’ in the Piano ATOS Trio 6, 7 Quartet is comparable to Scriabin. Thomas Hoppe, Piano 2 Associations with the Second

Chamber Music with Piano 1-3, 5 Annette von Hehn, Violin Viennese School are heard in the Stefan Heinemeyer, Cello poetic Quintet and the virtuoso Naomi Niskala, Piano 1, 3-5 Bernard Krug, Horn 1 Fantasy, while the two Piano Trios Ronald Carbone, Viola 3 mark the stylistic boundaries of his Frank Dodge, Cello 3-5 career. Helps’s Shall We Dance for Marieke Schneemann, Flute 5 piano (CD 2, Track 12) was among his DDD Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer, Clarinet 5 last recordings. Robert Helps, Piano 8 8.559696-97

ROBERT HELPS: A co-production with Deutschlandradio Kultur www.naxos.com 8.559696-97 A detailed track list, recording information and publishers’ details can be found on page 2 of the booklet. Booklet notes: Habakuk Traber with contributions from Jed Distler, David DelTredici, John Harbison, Alan Magee and Milton Babbitt • Cover photo: Dennis Kendall Hall 6 36943 96962 5 NAXOS